NOT granted....

My friend, V, is still in a battle against the bureaucracy and I feel like she's dealing with this.

She's been discharged from the hospital but because of some of the medications she's on as well as having TWO damaged knees, she is not able to be by herself....for about 6 months. As we speak, she has moved in with MommaRia and her family who live about an hour away from V so that they can help take care of her.

Why? you ask? Why would V need to move in with a friend so far from home? Because the battalion commander for V's husband's unit is on some Nathan R. Jessup power trip and still will not release J from active duty to return home and care for his wife and child.

Now, I completely understand that AFGM is a movie and that in the movie, the country was not at war with Cuba so the urgency that Pfc William Santiago was adding to his request for a transfer was a little much but COME ON! J NEEDS to be home caring for his family but none of the actions they've taken so far seem to matter to his CO. How safe can it be for J or the men "fighting" next to him to have him mentally unavailable? How can the men that put themselves in harms way for the rest of us be treated so inhumanely?

I also want to take a sec to point out V's domain name: "proudarngwife". Proud! That woman has been so supportive and sacrificing and has stood behind her husband, his choices to serve our country, as well as the reason we're even in Iraq. She's sold magnets on the internet to raise money to care for the members of J's battalion with needs that can't come fast enough from the Army's supply. Her pride goes so much further than patriotism. She lives and breaths the cause every day.

And this is her thanks? This is her payback? Nope, I don't buy it. This is a malicious, misdirected superiority complex at the hands of the CO.

This whole situation is getting so ridiculous, it makes me sick.

**********************************
For Vanessa - A Soldier's Wife - Roxie Dean

Breaking News from a desert town
Smoke and rubble on the ground
The names we do not know right now
And it cuts me like a knife

With a tearful goodbye kiss
I sent him off to this
But I've gotta stay strong for our kids
I'm a soldier's wife

I run the house
I sleep alone
I live for e-mails
And the phone calls home
I tell my children he will be all right
And I hope it's not a lie
I'm a soldier's wife

We do the things we used to do
Go to church,
go to school
But you could drive a truck right through
The hole that's in our lives

My little boy shoots me a grin
And says he wants to be like him
And I feel my heart start caving in
I'm a soldier's wife

Sometimes I'm angry
Sometimes confused
I live and die byThe evening news
But I tell my babies he will be all right
And I hope it's not a lie
I'm a soldier's wife

I pray for strength
I pray for peace
I pray that he comes home to me
And if you would please pray for me
I'm a soldier's wife.